August already? The summer always seems to pass so much faster than the winter, sigh.

DD is sort of walking. She CAN walk, and has walked about 3 or 4 steps between us multiple times, as well as 7 or 8 steps following me a couple times. She is the kind of kid who likes to barrell forward, screaming in triumph. When she uses her push truck she literally screams, with a huge smile on her face, while SPRINTING forward until she hits a wall BAM then she laughs and laughs, backs up, turns around (she can walk well enough to maneuver the push truck), and does it again. Of course, this means she really doesn't care for the tedium of staggering forward, 7 steps at a time. She stands there, looks at where she wants to go, then sits and scoots really fast to where she wants to be.

This whole thing is of course a perfect example of how a second child is different than a first. Despite the fact it seems like EVERYONE is asking if she's walking and my MIL and M have both made some comments about how she's not walking yet ("are you practicing?"), I'm not really concerned. I'm kind of happy, actually. With her personality and her climbing abilities (we found her standing on a kitchen chair the other day, chewing on the mortgage bill we'd left on the table), I'm fine with her waiting until the fall to walk.

I'm in the process of weaning her. We're down to just the morning feeding. That's going smoothly.

Anyone have any great fun family plans for the end of the summer? We might go camping but we're still waiting to hear about DH's work schedule before we decide.

Lissa, your DD has the right idea about that mortgage bill. Will she chew mine up as well? She sounds like such a happy, spirited kid! I'm with you in not seeing a huge need for rushing the walking. I've had lots of similar qusetions and comments about DS (1 this Saturday) and I just think he's perfect as he is and will have no trouble walking when the time comes.

I'm suddenly realizing that summer's almost over and we have not had more than a full 24 hour period of being together as a family of 4 without one of us having to go to work. Everything's gone so fast, we never "scheduled" a vacation. Since DH works for himself, at home, and much of his work is opportunity-based, it's hard for him to schedule time off. Whereas I'd be happy taking time off *anytime* from my salaried job. I'm hoping we can find a few days sometime in the next few months. I feel like everyone I know is going to Storyland/Santa's Village in the next few weeks.

This month will fly by for us. We have a family reunion next weekend, then are away for a long weekend the next weekend. I love everything about fall though, so that's fine by me. I am already getting so excited to take DD apple picking. She plays a lot with her Old McDonald tractor, so I think she'll love the hayride. Its crazy to think that last year she slept through the whole thing in the Bjorn.

Lissa, that's awesome about DD's walking. I forget exactly how old she is, but that was what DS was doing probably from 14-15 mos (first steps ever were at 14 -- I had to answer the same questions/comments as Poppy!). She sounds so much like my DS -- he was nuts about his push truck after he could take a few steps and when he did start walking would spend upwards of 30 minutes running back and forth in our family room screeching with joy. I just rewatched a video from when he was doing that back in May and felt a little wistful. He does still run around gleefully, but his steps aren't so adorably exaggerated and he's not quite so impressed with his own walking :-).

Thanks for all of the thoughts on second children. I'll have to get that book! We're still waiting but will probably start trying this winter, and, being a compulsive planner/overanalyzer, I'm already thinking a lot about it. It took me 4 mos to get pg with DS, so if we follow a similar timeline (I know, I know...), he would be about 3 when we had #2. Glad to hear good experiences with that!

We just came off a crazy weekend with 2 weddings in 24 hours and 3 out-of-town houseguests. DS was awesome. He had a great time with all the new friends in the house, hung out with his grandparents while we went to wedding #1, and was the life of the party at wedding #2. He was that kid going crazy on the dance floor (mostly just running after the big kids) and he looooved clapping along with all the applause when they announced the bride and groom, etc. -- sure he thought they were for him :-).

Now we have 1 free weekend and then we're heading to my extended family's annual beach vacation. Last year on this trip DS wasn't even sitting up yet, and even though I know I'll be lucky to get a second to relax with an 18 month-old to chase after, I'm looking forward to it more. Last year he didn't really care where he was and was only quasi-interested in the other kids (and there are many!). If the wedding this weekend was any indication, there will be a lot more fun stuff with him to balance out the chasing, tantrums, etc. Of course, this comes at a super-busy work time for both me and DH, so we'll be shuttling back and forth (the beach is pretty local). Poppy, what was that you said about finding time to take off? :-)

About the transition to 2 kids-mine are just shy of 3 years apart-I love the age difference, though I'm sure you adjust to what ever age difference you have them and love that! DD will be 2 soon and and DS 5 shortly after-so DS was almost 3 when I had DD. I will never forget when we loaded all of us into the car go head home from the hosptial and DS in the back said "well, here we go!" And the adventure began!

I can't say that I had resentment twoards DS, but I did lose a little connection with him for a while. DD needed my time, and DS was more independent. DH took over a lot of the entertainment for DS at that time. Our Pedi warned us that DH wouldn't really connect with DD until about 3-4 months-basically because he will be running interferrence with the older child.

DS at 3 "got it" that I needed to focus on DD more in the beginning, and I did make an effort to put his needs first (when appropriate) to show him that he was still a major priority-DD could fuss/cry for a min while I tended to DS.

Now as they are both older it is just amazing to see their relationship! DS has learned the way to deal with a toddler is to distract her, so when she was getting into a bag she shouldn't have, he distracted her and I heard his voice down the hall saying "Quick Mommy, I have DD, go hide the bag!" too cute. When DS was having a melt down the other day, DD went to him gave him a bear hug and kissed him. When one is in trouble the other tries to stick up for them. This happened even as DD was about 6 mo old-if DS got in trouble, she started to cry and distract us. DS finishes DD's sentences, is her biggest champion in potty training (the two of them have a little post potty dance they do together)-don't get me wrong, they fight over toys too!

It's amazing/interesting to see how their personalities are similar and different at the same time. DS walked at 10.5 months, DD at 12.5 months, DS was a great teether, DD I'm ready to extract her teeth myself. DS was much more prone to stomach bugs and fevers, DD not so much.

Best part of having two, is having date times with each one indivdually! When DS start's acting up more, we schedule a date time, just him and me, and it's great to connect and have fun and focus just on him.

It was once described the sibling relationship will be the longest relationship the two of them will have (god willing), it's going to have ups and downs, but a relationship unlike any other they will have.

As for morning routine- when DD was little, I'd get up around 6am (I alwasy shower and do hair at night) get myself ready, get DD ready-dress, bottle (she weaned herself around 4 mo-so that "saved" me time in the AM), then wake DS up, and usher him through the routine. DH would be in charge of playing/entertaining one/both as necessary-then he helps load everyone into the car and are off and out of the house by 7:10-breakfast bars and milk in the car now. DS at 3.5 was an absolute pickle to get dressed-I don't miss that age/stage. Now, most mornings, I find both of them in DD's crib playing/talking. Everyone into the bathroom, pee, brush teeth, wash face, then tell DS to get dressed, I dress DD. Then tell DS to get dressed a few more times...DH is now awake and helping get DS dressed/deal with DD I get dressed and we're out the door. the key to a smooth morning is two parents! I've done it when DH's been traveling, by myself, but I get up a little earlier then.

As for dinner-your crock pot is your friend! Make a big batch of brown rice for the week, dole out as much as you need for dinner, heat up and you're good to go. And don't forget to assign your DH to pick up a roaster chicken even once in a while-it's his responsibility too! (though I do a roaster chicken in the crock pot and it's delish!)

Poppy-I think you're ds is just going back to habit. try and stay strong with no bottle and he will settle down. Soon he'll be off all bottles right? Whole milk can be very filling, so much so that I had to take DS off of it early because he'd be too full to eat any food.

Great updates! Lissa, so cute thinking about your DD gleefully running after the push cart. Mine did that too as he was not a very stable walker for some time. And I will definitely relax a bit about the early gross motor skills with #2. We had EI looking at DS around 10 months because he wasn't getting up and down on his own and wasn't a crawler. He totally did it on his own time, and I just needed to let him be on his own schedule (now he's a super champ with climbing and getting anywhere and everywhere).

Poppy, we were one of the ones at Storyland this past weekend. Such fun. We have a house about 40 mins away, so easier to get up there when we can. DS is 2.10, and really enjoyed. He went on a ton of the rides and had so much fun. A great age to go. We went last year, and there were about 4 rides he enjoyed... this was much more!

KAM, just read your update. GREAT points and advice about going from 1 to 2. Your son sounds like such an awesome little man!!

Does anyone have experience with a baby who keeps spitting up/vomitting? (Still don't fully get the difference...) The doctor told us to add a tsp of rice cereal per ounce of EBM/formula bottles to help both the spit up and his weigh gain. We started it last Thursday. I swear the spitting up is getting worse. Poor DS spit up so many times yesterday that I lost track. It's not just a quick thing after he eats. It's a significant volume and it's all day. We've tried keeping him upright at least 20 minutes after he eats, but it's not helping. His daycare teachers said he's been spitting up all morning. He's been through 4 bibs and they're sitting him up on their laps after each bottle. He's also not taking as many bottles as he should be. We've tried waking him up to eat, but it seems like that makes the spit up worse, maybe because he's not really hungry? I also want him to get his nutrition from formula or EBM, not from rice. The doctor made it sound like no big deal, but I moved our appointment up from Thursday to tomorrow. He's generally a happy baby. If it was possible to spit up while smiling, DS would do it. I don't feel like he's sick but I don't want him to keep spitting up, especially where he's underweight to begin with. I just wasn't sure if there was something else that's worked for other people in the past?

Arcain - glad DS had fun at the wedding. He must have been adorable!

We're trying to decide if we should go away for my birthday at the end of the month. Then, if we go away, do we take DS? I'm leaning towards not doing anything special, maybe get my nails done with a few girl friends and go out to dinner.

Chiclet - I don't have any words of wisdom - but I feel for you. My DD is a spitter too. Quite a lot I think. Sometimes she does it while she is still feeding and it comes out her nose and she chokes. It is quite upsetting. She has her 2 month checkup tomorrow and I'm going to ask the pedi for any tips.

...and count us as those making the trek to Storyland/Santa's Village this month. We are going this week for 3 days. Wed-Fri to try and have less crowds. I'm bumming that the weather looks bad for Thursday, but maybe it won't be so bad up in NH. We are staying 2 nights in a condo rental that I found on vrbo.com since we are about a 3 hour drive. It will be our first trip away since DD2 was born and I figured 2 nights was all I was willing to try. I hope we have fun. Traveling with a newborn is a challenge, but I didn't want the whole summer and my maternity leave to go by without having a little fun. Worst case scenario I sit around the park and nurse DD2 all day while DH and DD1 have a blast.

IPW - that is great that you were just there. One question for you - does Storyland have any water-type attractions? It looks like Santa's Village has a splash park for the little ones. Just wondering if Storyland had any swimming type things? DD loves that kind of stuff.

This weekend we also have a wedding to attend. It is local, but it will involve my mother and brother babysitting the girls for almost the whole day on Saturday. I'm a bit nervous about that. It will be the first time we've left DD2 with anyone else for longer than 45 minutes and she is NOT great at taking a bottle. Eeks.

Chiclet - this is probably a dumb question (I know he has weight issues, but not sure how much he's getting per feeding when the spit-up occurs), but could he now be getting too much per feeding? Or feedings too close together? Does it happen even after a small feeding? The only reason I ask is because my DS would spit up anytime I fed him even a tiny bit over what his stomach could handle, and it took me a while to figure out how much that was. He has never been able to take a full 8 oz bottle in one sitting, even now at almost 12 months. When he was littler (not newborn but several months old) and would stop sucking after a few ounces, I'd give him a rest then try to give him the remaining ounces a short while later, and he'd always spit up. Once I figured that out, I let him decide how much to eat each time. The biggest issue with this is that he was waking up every 2 hours all night long until he was about 9 months and really eating a lot of solid food during the day. I couldn't wean him off of any night feedings because then he just wasn't getting enough milk/formula.

I feel for both you and your DS, I know the feeding is not going as you imagined! It's so hard to see your little one having a tough time. But I'm glad at least he's happy!

Chiclet - My DS was a major spitter, too. Remember that it's not as much as it looks -- you can soak a bib with less than an ounce! And if he's happy, that's SO much better than the alternative, having known people with kids that had bad reflux.

Not to add to your list of things to think about, but how do you feel about the cereal in the bottle? My old pedi told us the same thing when DS was about 2 mos old. I asked around and several people (maybe even on the boards?) said that was somewhat old-school advice. I ended up switching pedis (not just because of that), and our new one said he wouldn't advise it. Now, my memory on this is spotty, and my DS was good with gaining weight, but I just wonder if the cereal is the best advice from the pedi. We basically just waited it out with DS, since it didn't bother him, and it went away eventually, I think around 6 mos. Again, different circumstances and spotty memory, so don't take my word for gospel on it...

Poppy - Most of DS's bottles are only 3 oz. I do a 4 oz bottle first thing in the morning because it's usually been 6-8 hours since he last ate and he's usually starving. My friend as a daughter that's DS's age (literally, born 12 hours apart) and she's taking 5.5 oz at a time! I think DS would explode if we did that! According to his doctor, DS is supposed to eat every 2.5-3 hours. Prior to the rice cereal, I would give him a 2 oz bottle of formula if got hungry within the hour, which would probably happen once a day. Otherwise, I would just nurse him as he got hungry. Now that he's getting the cereal, he's going much longer between feedings, to the point that I'm waking him up after 3.5 hours to see if he's hungry.

I'm also read that rice cereal doesn't thicken EBM well because there's some protein that breaks down the rice. Has anyone else heard that? I'm sure our doctor wouldn't tell us to do something that doesn't work, right?

Hi, haven't been on here in awhile and it's nice to see all the updates. Kids do things on their own timelines- DS didn't really walk on his own until he was almost 16 months even though he'd been walking holding on from about 11 months. A few people expressed concern but I wasn't worried, more just surprised that he didn't do it earlier. Now I can barely keep up with him...

Does anyone have experience on splitting time between a nanny and daycare? DS has been in daycare since he was 4 months and he likes it but I'm considering hiring someone to watch him at home 1-2 days (I only work 4 days). Might be the larger toddler class size but I'm wondering if it'd be better if he got more attention. Selfishly, I'm also thinking it'd be nice to have someone make his lunch or do his laundry once in a while. If we're ever lucky enough to have a 2nd child (after several recent failed IVFs, that's looking less likely), I'd also want to have help with DS at home as his daycare is in near my office. Anyone do something similar?

ALS - re: Storyland water. They have a log jammer ride and two other rides where you definitely get soaked. They aren't pools or stand-in-water spots, but you do see a lot of kids running around in their bathing suits! There also is a small spot where there are water "spouts" in the ground the shoot up every couple seconds. The kids in there were having a great time. But no real designated water area like a water park. As for weather, we went on Saturday and the forecast showed thunder storms all day. We never once felt a drop, and the mix of sun/clouds was just perfect. I'm becomming less and less dependent on weather reports as they are so often totally wrong!

TC - never hired a nanny, but at only 1-2 days, I'm guessing it would need to be a nanny-share. Most want to work a full 5 day week I believe. It is possible though... a friend just hired one for 2 days and another family took the other 3. My DS now spends two days with my in-laws and then 3 days at daycare, so technically we have a similar situation that you are looking for. However, in just a few weeks starting September, he starts in the preschool room and will be going full time, 5 days a week. I'm not worried about his getting less attention, even moving to a larger room, as he has such great friends already. Even this morning was showing me something that he and "Leah" do together (some somersault thing... was so cute!)

Chiclet--my baby spits up a lot, all day and all night. I would estimate she spits at leasr 30 times per day, some right after she eats, some curdled stuff hours later. About 2-4 of those will be a huge vomit that soaks everything in sight. However, so far her weight gain has been fine (faster than normal--knock on wood!) so not sure my advice is useful. (I EBF on demand, every 2-3 hours.) My pedi said we could try Zantac but since DD's weight is fine, she didn't think it was necessary and we declined. Have you tried Zantac?

I've also been told rice cereal is old school advice, and my pedi hasn't mentioned it. She did tell us to prop the crib up and hold her upright for 30 min after a feed, like you are doing.

I've read a lot on this topic online. Dr. Sears and others recommends that mom try eliminating dairy from her diet. I'm already vegan, so that's not our problem. Dr sears also suggests eliminating wheat. I'm planning to try that for 2-3 days after we return from vacation next week to see if that helps, but I'm not optimistic.

What a day we've had! The doctor agrees with me that the spit up is a problem with a baby with DS's weight history, but my little piggy gained 10oz in 6 days. No idea how he pulled that off with all the spit up! We can't establish a pattern. It seems equal whether it's formula or breastmilk. It's all times of the day. We just had an ultrasound to diagnose piloric stenosis, which was negative. We're to change him to Alimentum formula and I'm to eliminate dairy from my diet and follow up in 2 weeks. We're also to continue with the rice cereal, but I might take it out while we're trying all these other things. To Arcain's point, I don't love that he's taking it either. I'm sure it's responsible for his weight gain, but isn't that kind of the difference of my gaining weight from cupcakes or from chicken? I don't want him to gain weight at the expense of his nutrition. He's definitely getting chubbier, which is great to see. I just worry that we're doing something that is going to hurt him in the long-run.

Chiclet... To be honest, that doesn't sound like that much spit up to me. My DD spit up tons, around the clock like Siena said. I know you have the weight gain worries, but everything I read and got from the doctors was that some babies just spit up. The doctor said they wouldn't do anything unless the spit up caused her pain (and was thus acid reflux related). She didn't mind it and it went away around 6-7 momths.

Again, this is just the spit up, doesn't address weight gain worries. Have you considered a second opinion? I don't think the rice will harm your LO, but a lot of baby digestive stuff is "try it and maybe it will work... Or not!" Since they can't really do well controlled wxperiments on babies. :)

Hi all, sorry to hear about the spitting up Chiclet. My DS spits up a lot too, but also has acid reflux.....starting around 3 weeks he was very uncomfortable and crying a lot. We put him on Prilosec and that helped his reflux and he is much happier now, but he still spits up. My pedi said there is nothing you can do about that other than wait for that muscle to develop. I know it must be hard though since you are worried about weight gain.

Has anyone's LO had green p**p? DS has had dark green BM for over a week now. Trying to decide if I should call the pedi. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it. When I read online, it seems like it could be because of a dairy allergy or that he is getting too much foremilk?? I am already not eating much dairy because of his reflux (I don't religiously read labels though). He also does get some formula during the day because my supply isn't high enough for him. Any thoughts?

Also, he is very fussy while nursing lately. Flailing all around and pulling off a lot. He is 3.5 months. I have tried nursing in a quiet room, and that helps sometimes, but not always. I can't figure out if it is because he is not getting enough, getting frustrated with it not coming fast enough, or something else. He sometimes nurses for like a minute on each side and then is flailing all around. I can't imagine that he drains me that fast though. But, he does not act hungry after even those short feedings. Thoughts?

You know, Med, one of my friends brings her daughter to a pedi GI specialist at MGH who said if the baby is a "happy spitter", she doesn't care how much or how often. If we didn't have the weight gain issue, I'd agree. We don't have to see the doctor until the end of the month, so I have time to introduce changes slowly, depending on how his weight is doing. (I broke down and got a pedi scale.)

Memes - I thought if your baby was getting too much foremilk, their p00p would be kind of frothy. If that's a issue, you can always pump for a few minutes before feeding him to get rid of it and see how he does. I don't know about the fussiness nursing. When DS starts flailing, I usually change his position or bump him for a few minutes. Could you hand express or massage before he starts so the milk flows a little faster?

Chiclet, my DS is also a spitter, but despite being small, he is gaining on track (close to an ounce a day, so far). I read a quote somewhere that spitting up is a laundry problem, not a medical problem. It might be that the spitting up has nothing (or very little) to do with the weight gain issue. It really stinks that there isn't much more that can be done other than try different things in the hopes that something will work.

I have a question for you ladies, which is DS will be 3 months old on the 11th, but I have not started putting him in his crib for naps. He still sleeps on a pretty much as wanted basis where ever he is at the time - car seat, reclined high chair seat, being held, etc. Part of this is because we have had a stream of family visiting, followed by two weeks of shuttling DD to afternoon swim lessons, and I haven't really had the time/energy to get him on a schedule. What age did all of you start a set nap time(s)? And when did you start making sure naptime was in the crib?

I have a question for you ladies, which is DS will be 3 months old on the 11th, but I have not started putting him in his crib for naps. He still sleeps on a pretty much as wanted basis where ever he is at the time - car seat, reclined high chair seat, being held, etc. Part of this is because we have had a stream of family visiting, followed by two weeks of shuttling DD to afternoon swim lessons, and I haven't really had the time/energy to get him on a schedule. What age did all of you start a set nap time(s)? And when did you start making sure naptime was in the crib?

Oh boy is this right up my alley...we had the hardest times with naps for our DD forever. Since starting daycare at 4 months, she always naps great there- falls asleep on her own in a PnP. At home, however, was a different story- she would only nap if we held her, and would wake up when put in her crib. (Nighttime was fine, oddly enough). It took us until she was around 10.5-11 months old to get her to nap in her crib on her own. We always had the schedule down, but we'd have to sit and hold her for her 2 naps...I finally came to my senses after WAY too long and basically did nap training, similar to sleep training. Some days are still rough, where she won't sleep very long or at all for that matter.

From my personal experience I'd recommend starting it sooner rather than later!

Memes, have you changed your eating habits recently? It could be just fresh, summer produce--extra kale from the CSA or lots of blueberries, something like that? If he doesn't seem bothered by it, I'd let it be.

amy, with both my girls I found that 5-6 months was the age where they started to really settle into a 2 nap schedule. Honestly, with my oldest she got on a schedule then because she went to daycare then and they put her on a schedule (I was too airy-fairy to do it earlier). With DD#2 I was home still but she started to naturally go towards the naps then so I went with it. If you don't start a routine soon, you'll probably end up nap training a cranky 11 month old, which is a horrible place to be. It doesn't have to be a set-in-stone, we'll never see our friends again nap schedule, but maybe try to put long car drives in the naptimes when necessary and then make sure whenever you ARE home, there's a routine for naptime.

Amy - I think it was right around that point with my DS that we started doing naps in the crib. I started following the Weissbluth method of soothing to sleep after 1-2 hours awake (before that he'd nod off anywhere, so we didn't really have to think about that :-)). For the first week or so it was rough, and I would have to rock him for awhile and sometimes let him cry a bit, but he got used to the routine and was napping probably 4x per day at 3 mos. By 6 mos, he was down to 3, and shortly after that we (with effort) got him down to 2. I'd agree with Summer that sooner rather than later is better. Even at 3 mos, he's gotten used to routines, and if he's relying on the swing or bouncy to sleep it will only get harder to ease him off of it as he gets older.

I'm feeling a bit irked at my dad. He takes care of DS one day per week, and yesterday he brought me a copy of this piece with the part about only giving kids under 2 small pieces of soft food circled in bold marker. A few things:

DS is 17 mos and has a ton of teeth, including 1 yr molars and canines look like they're coming in.

We do sometimes give him larger pieces of sandwich, etc., to bite off because he is a difficult eater and it often interests him enough that he will actually eat. He knows exactly what to do, generally takes small bites, and has never once tried to swallow without chewing enough

My dad has always been super overprotective, from my birth right on through DS'

My first question is, am I really putting DS in danger by letting him bite off pieces of some foods? It's an area where I've felt pretty confident that I know my kid and what he's capable of for some time, but now I'm worried, and I certainly don't want to mess around with choking.

My second one is, how do I deal with this with my dad? I know he's overprotective and does not think we're bad parents. But he's forever asking just one too many questions if DS is sick or jumping in to spot him when he's running around or something as if he's inevitably going to hurt himself. I'll occasionally gently remind him that we know our kid and what we're doing, and my mom tells him off for it in a much more vociferous way. The article thing bothered me more, I think, because it's clear he was thinking about it after seeing me give DS a big piece of sandwich or something, and that he didn't just talk to me about it. Worth noting, my dad is also incredibly passive-aggressive. He is not going to change his overprotectiveness, so I'm half-inclined to just suck it up and nod rather than ask him to suppress what I know he's thinking.

Memes - DD's p00p ran the entire spectrum of green, including some colors that I never knew existed. THis lasted about 3 months or so. Every time her pedi said not to worry about color unless it was black and tarry. To appease me, they even ran samples through the lab and it came back normal. She never had trouble eating, and didn't seem bothered by it at all.

Amy-lynn - Sounds like I'm the opposite of most, but I did excactly what you are doing until DD was about 5 months - let her sleep whenever she wanted in the swing, care seat, RNP. Even when she started daycare she'd only sleep in the swing there, so I told them to just let her sleep in the swing. Eventually she grew out of it - figuratively and literally. Once she was starting to sit up and pull up out of those contraptions I (and they) started putting her in teh crib and she slept there with no problem. By then she pretty much set her own nap schedule, one long nap in the morning (2-3 hrs), and one shorter one in the afternoon (1-1.5 hrs). Same thing at night - she slept in the RNP until she grew out of it, then right in the crib. I also rocked her to sleep at night until 6 months, then she just sort of let me know she didn't want or need that anymore by getting all squirmy and seeming like she needed to stretch out after finishing her bottle.

Arcain, my dad sounds a lot like your dad. DD is only 7 months but we're using the Baby Led Weaning (BLW) approach to offering her solids which is not spoon feeding her and only giving her things that are pureed if it's something that we would eat like that (applesauce, yogurt, mashed potatoes, etc.). The other night DD and I were having dinner with my parents and my father started asked me a million questions about "who told me/where did I read/did the doctor say/etc." that it was okay for DD to have a grilled slice of zucchini and roasted chicken (which she happily chewed up with her razor sharp gums and ate). I got him to stop when I showed him some research on BLW and let him know that if at any point I was worried about DD choking I would stop. I also reminded him that my DH is a trained and licensed EMT and that I took a baby CPR class should anything bad happened. It seemed to help after I explained everything and assured him that DD was not in harms way. If he says anything now I'll probably just nod, say "ah-ha" and keep doing what I'm doing. :-) Good luck!

Arcain, you know this - a passive aggressive is impossible to change. The only way you can be happy around him is to change your internal reaction. Easier said than done when it's a parent, but I speak from experience - you can decide to let his pa messages roll off your back as you thank him for his concern and move on emotionally immediately. Water, duck's back - you get the idea. :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~